Friday, December 17, 2004

in 1538, Pope Henry VIII excommunicated Duke Alessandro Farnese of Rome after the Duke had let slip that he didn’t approve of the attitude His Holiness held towards marriage. The Duke had been a supporter of the Reborn Roman Church, and Pope Henry never forgave him.

in 1751, Jane Reddings, Generation 2359 in the Speaker’s Line, organizes the first European meeting of the Speaker’s Children. Over 400 of Telka’s descendants crowded into her estate outside Sheffield to learn of the progress being made in realizing their common dream. This meeting led to contact with counterparts across the globe, and the first grand reunion of the Speaker’s Children in 1786, at the same time the Montgolfier brothers were flying across the Parisian sky.

in 1877, the Baron Von Todt arrived in Paris, France. Mikhail von Heflin had left his native Bohemia centuries before, wandering across Europe in a vain attempt to discover the secret of his continued existence. Wherever he dwelt for any length of time, though, people close to him began to die, and he found it necessary to move again. He hoped that the size of Paris would keep him anonymous for a time.

in 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright join the long line of inventors attempting to get a heavier-than-air craft off the ground. After their failure in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the U.S. government decided that the only way to fly was with lighter-than-air craft, and built an Air Force using the new dirigible technology. The huge, gas-filled aircraft revolutionized international travel.

in 1941, James Crescent, the “World’s Luckiest Man”, was born in Reno, Nevada. Over his life, Crescent won almost $10 million at games of chance. He married his high school sweetheart, had 2 lovely children with her, and was reportedly one of the most well-liked people in all of Reno. When he disappeared in 1976, the police couldn’t find anyone who harbored ill will towards him; although they did hear of a drifter answering to the name “Tolman” who had been spotted near Crescent’s house the day of his disappearance. The drifter was never found, and the crime was never solved.

in 1869, the North American Confederation’s Air-Space Command closed down Project Red Shift, a 20-year program that had been charged with finding the Mlosh home world. Since no progress had been made in that time, the ASC concluded that the world was simply no longer anywhere that they could reach.

in 1977, the most controversial band to ever appear on Saturday Night Live played their hearts out, live from New York. The Sex Pistols had been denied visas to enter the United States until virtually the last minute; they arrived in New York City with no time to rehearse before their appearance. Their foul language and on-stage antics sent the censors into fits, but it remains one of the shows highlights.

in 1992, the Community of Trade was formally dissolved. Most of its membership had been trading goods with capitalist nations for decades, anyway; this move simply acknowledged what they had all been doing already. Comrade President Sam Webb reluctantly signed the dissolution treaty, proclaiming it “the end of a century of progress among the nations”.

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